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It is just the other day I was wishing you folks a
merry Christmas. As I write this, January 2020 is gone and we are in the month
of February. Time is flying very fast.

After a three week break, we started the year with a retreat in the first week of January. The Club’s Board and I retreated to evaluate our successes, failures and lessons gained during the first six months of the 2019-20 Rotary year.

We had a very interactive time reviewing what we must
get done in the second half of the Rotary year. The retreat was well attended
by Directors and a few Past Presidents of the Club and we were able to define
clearly what and how we need to execute the pending tasks.

Refreshing guests in
January

January 2020 started on a high with our first guest speaker Dr. Ezekiel Mutua, the CEO of the Kenya Film Classification Board. The meeting was a joint evening fellowship with RC Milimani.

Dr. Ezekiel Mutua has been nick named the morality cop by Kenyans because of his controversial stand against content aired on media.

Mutua spoke about the content Kenyans are consuming on various platforms – TV, radio and the internet. He was unapologetic about his “moral cop” title and his fight against content that goes against moral, cultural and Christian values.

Our second guest was Joyce Gikunju, a Sales Academy facilitator and book author. Joyce spoke about the changing art of selling. The audience learnt about the changing sales environment and how sales personnel need to reposition themselves to reap from the ongoing changes.

President Dan Awendo (left) exchanging flags with Rotarian Joyce Gikunju who was a guest speaker at RC Nairobi East.

On the last week of January, we hosted Nery Ronatay, a Rotary Peace Scholarship Fellow and Angi Yoder Maina, a trauma management expert.

(From left – right) President Dan Awendo, Angi Yoder Maina and Nery Ronatay, a Rotary Peace Scholarship Fellow pose for a photo after the meeting.

The panelists gave a passionate presentation of how they have managed to stop the cycle of violence by transforming the lives of victims who have gone through trauma caused by violence.

Six upcoming activities in February

February is Peace building and Conflict Prevention month. We have a series of activities planned in February in line with this theme.

Goal setting at St. John’s Korogocho

On Saturday 8th February all roads lead to our vocational services project at St. John School in Korogocho for a target setting session with pupils. This annual exercise has helped #ElevateThePerformance of this school.

Every year, we help the pupils of St John’s Korogocho set their academic goals.

We now see excellent results coming from this school which only a few years ago could not produce any marks that we can talk about. The pupils now qualify for secondary school in numbers we could only dream about. Join us and shape the destiny of a child’s whose future would have been wasted were it not for your intervention.

2. Weekly fellowships

We have invited various interesting speakers for our
lunch fellowships. This month we want to explore fun topics. We have a planned
master class in sign language on Tuesday 11th and a birthday
luncheon on Tuesday 25th February. Save the date and make a date
with us!

3. Transitioning Rotaractors into Rotary

This is one of those big hairy audacious goals we set
out for the club at the beginning of this Rotary year. We will be transitioning
at least five Rotaractors into Rotary. We have developed a fantastic
relationship with our Rotaract Club, The
Spartans. We are now ready to transition some of them into RC Nairobi East at
an induction fellowship planned for Friday 28th February, 2020. This
is a very big deal for us and on behalf of all members, I would like to warmly
welcome the Rotaractors who will be joining the coolest club.

4. Rotary birthday

Believe it or not, Rotary will be turning 115 years old on Sunday 23rd February 2020! To celebrate, RC Nairobi East is planning a birthday cake blowout for our beloved Rotary on Tuesday 25th February, 2020. Make sure you come and join your fellow Rotarians and guests as we celebrate and enjoy a meal together. Details will be shared soon.

5. Share your love at the Sunshine Rally

RC Nairobi East has been tasked to get gifts that will be given to more than 7,000 children with special needs who will be attending the Sunshine Rally on Saturday 14th March, 2020.

February being the month of love, we will reach out to
members for contributions towards this worthy cause. Do not be left behind.

6. Tree planting as a fundraising initiative

As part of delivering the US$ 40,000 fundraising
target that we set out for ourselves for the Rotary year 2019-20, RC Nairobi
East is looking for partners to spearhead a tree planting campaign that aims to
plant 200,000 trees per year for the next five years. Look out for updates and reach
out to me if you want to know more details.